Yankees farmhand Pat Venditte is a left-hander for the World Baseball Classic. (AP Photo)

On the official score sheet for Tuesday’s game, Venditte was listed as a right-hander. But if you saw him working against the Dominican Republic, you saw him pitching as a left-hander. In fact, that’s why he was facing lefty-hitting Robinson Cano with Italy trying to hold a 4-2 lead with one out in the seventh inning.

“He throws harder from the right side but he is nasty from the lefty side,” Italy manager Marco Mazzieri said.

The way Cano has been hitting, Venditte could have been firing baseballs with a bazooka and it probably wouldn’t have made much difference. This time, Cano came through not with a blast but a bloop single to left that loaded the bases and proved key in the three-run rally that kept the Dominican undefeated in the WBC.

Cano also homered and doubled against Italy to raise his batting average to .632 in the WBC. Including two exhibitions, Cano is 16-for-26 since donning the Dominican Republic uniform last week.

“I had the matchup I wanted there, left on left, and I think the pitch was there but what are you going to do? He got a base hit,” a disappointed Venditte said. “It’s my job to get him out and I didn’t get him out. My guys played a heck of a game and it was tough to go out like that.”

Venditte, a late addition to the roster, had made two appearances without allowing a run in Italy’s first three games. His manager knew Venditte would be limited to pitching left-handed before adding the 27-year-old Nebraskan to the Italy roster. (They had to make sure he qualified as an Italian.) He underwent surgery on the labrum in his right shoulder last June and has yet to return to the mound as a right-hander.

When healthy, Venditte alternates between lefty and righty during an outing depending on the matchup. “Right-handed is my natural side but I’ve had a little more success left on left,” said Venditte, who has been a reliever since signing with the New York Yankees as a 20th-round pick in 2008.

While he has yet to climb past Class AAA, Venditte already can take credit for a rules change. He was facing a switch hitter, New York Mets farmhand Ralph Henriquez, in his first pro season when the two engaged in a baseball version of musical chairs.

Henriquez would step in as a lefty, putting his shin guard on his right leg, and Venditte would retrieve his right-handed glove. Before a pitch had been thrown, Henriquez switched to the other side of the plate, changed his shin guard, and Venditte went for his lefty glove. Back and forth they went—“five or 10 times,” Venditte said—until the umpire said enough.

Henriquez was forced to choose a side, allowing Venditte the matchup advantage. Venditte struck out Henriquez to end the game—and change a rule.

“The rule came down the next day where I would have to declare before an at-bat,” Venditte said.

He still is allowed to switch back and forth between hitters, which he will continue to do when his right arm is ready. A native of Omaha and product of Creighton, Venditte said he started switch-pitching because “my father had me do it. He had me start working left and right arms starting at age 3 and I just kind of kept with it.

“I’m a righty in daily life but in baseball, I prefer to be out there left-handed,” he said.